Help advice worried

[Carol52]

What does a stage 1 absence review meeting mean.
Does anyone know what they are what happens in the meeting . Is it a written warning.
What are the stages of a warning
Legally
Please help with advice

It's literally just a stage 1 very informal meeting. They'll just say you've hit a trigger for absence & if you have anymore within X period it could trigger the nxt stage which could be a written warning, generally then if you're absent again it could go to a formal meeting and eventually dismissal. However they'd want to see if they could support you with adjustments at work first if you're having lots of time off work. I wouldn't worry about it.

It’s not nice working for a company where you can’t be ill, or feel like you have to force yourself in when you are ill. If you had a viral infection you’d make everyone else ill.
If you have certain triggers for getting ill, let your manager know what makes you ill and they’ll have to speak with HR how to address this and hopefully help you

It should be a discussion to ensure that your work understand the reasons for each absence, whether there is an underlying reason or link between them, whether there is anything about your work that's causing you to be ill or something happening at home that they may need to know about.

The outcome should not be pre-determined because until they've had that conversation with you they can't know enough to make a decision.

If there are no underlying conditions, work based reasons, home based reasons etc then the likely outcome is that they will remind you of the sickness thresholds and triggers in the policy, ask you to make sure you are doing your best to take care of yourself, and give a 1st stage outcome. Usually that's a verbal warning but you'd need to check your policy. Alongside that should be an objective ie 'no more than 1 further occasion of sickness absence between Mar 25 and June 25, 2 or more occasions may result in progression to next stage.'

Whilst none of the answers here are "wrong", they demonstrate the fact that there is no single answer to the question. Each employer will (or should) have a policy on sickness absence, but they will all vary to an extent. There is no requirement to have an informal stage; nor is it necessary, in the main, to seek "explanations" for absence. For many employers the tool with the exception of pregnancy, and to an extent disability, is a blunt instrument where if you hit the absence triggers then you will receive a form of warning about absence levels and a taget which you must not exceed before moving to the next level, and ultimately to dismissal. The system is, in fact, designed to be a blunt instrument and to remove the option of personal opinion from decisions, in order to make any subsequent dismissal fair in law.

In order to understand your employers policy you need to get hold of a copy and find out what the triggers used are. If your absences are caused by a specific reason or circumstance then you should tell them about that, and it may be necessary to seek an occupational health assessment. But in the end, it most cases the outcome is, in fact, pre-determined and any actions to support you will be aimed at trying to get you to not trigger the next stage rather than to not get a first stage warning.

Thank you is it the number of individual absences or 1 long absence that could be a trigger

Also it does says formal it says there will be three other members in the meeting you can have a union rep I'd colleague if you wish as well

Only your sickness policy would be able to tell you that. You really need to get hold of a copy before the meeting.

Could be either or both. Surely you know your absence record and reasons why. You may just be given the an initial verbal warning but you can request support if there are reasons behind it which could improve with it.